Clouds over cOMPlEX environment
March 14 to April 14, 2026, Longyearbyen/Svalbard
Scientific Objectives¶
COMPEX is a joint project of different German universities and research institutes embedded in the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre TRR 172: ArctiC Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and SurfaCe Processes, and Feedback Mechanisms (AC)³. The general goal of the COMPEX campaign is the observation and subsequent understanding of Arctic MPCs in complex environments, focusing on (1.) the broader Ny-Ålesund area and (2.) low-level clouds over sea ice. As more technical objectives, we aim (3.) to derive sea ice emissivities to ultimately support the assimilation of satellite data in the Arctic and (4.) to evaluate the performance of EarthCARE’s CPR. Objectives (2.) and (3.) rely on sea ice coverage, which has its maximum extent around Svalbard in spring. Therefore, COMPEX is planned for March/April 2025 with a base in Longyearbyen (Svalbard), which, in addition, extends the datasets from AFLUX and HALO-(AC)³ conducted during the same time of the year in the same region.
